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Capture of Vigilant
Part of the King George's War
Edward Tyng
Date 18–20 May 1745 Location off Fortress Louisbourg Result British victory
Belligerents
Great Britain	France
Commanders and leaders
Peter Warren Edward Tyng	Marquis de la Maisonfort
Strength
5 ships of the line	1 ship of the line; 500 men
Casualties and losses
6 wounded (including Tyng)	1 ship of the line captured 35 killed & 26 wounded 100 prisoners

The Capture of Vigilant was an incident in May 1745 of the naval warfare of King George's War. British forces captured the French vessel Vigilant off Nova Scotia.

It involved Commodore Warren in HMS Superb (60 guns), Captain Durell in HMS Eltham (40 guns), Captain Calmady in HMS Launceston, Captain Douglas in HMS Mermaid and Captain John Rous of HMS Shirley Galley who fought the French ship Vigilant (64 guns) off Louisbourg. Douglas in Mermaid (40 guns) engaged the French ship. John Rous in Shirley Galley was the first to fire, giving the ship several broadsides into the stern. Captain Durell was next to give a broadside. The commodore got alongside the ship - they fired briskly, tearing the rigging and sails to pieces. Fog settled in and Vigilant got away. In the morning, Vigilant was visible and clearly wrecked. The British took 100 French sailors prisoner to Boston.

References

1. "Biography – LA MAISONFORT DU BOISDECOURT, ALEXANDRE DE, Marquis de LA MAISONFORT – Volume III (1741-1770) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography". www.biographi.ca.
2. Chapin, Howard M. (January 29, 1928). Privateering in King George's war, 1739-1748 /. Providence. hdl:2027/txu.059173017850230.

Sources

• Canadian Biography - Edward Tyng
• Memoirs of Edward Tyng, Esquire ... and of Hon. William Tyng ... By Edward Tyng, William Tyng, Timothy Alden
• Capture of the Vigilant, A particular history of the five years French and Indian war in New England ... By Samuel Gardner Drake p. 209
• McLennan, J.S. (1918). Louisbourg, from Its Foundation to Its Fall, 1713-1758. London: Macmillan. pp. 156, 177.
• French third rate ship of the line 'Le Vigilant' (1744)
• Seeds of Discontent: The Deep Roots of the American Revolution, 1650-1750 By J. Revell Car, p. 244
• Blue Pete
• Douglass, William (1755). A Summary, Historical and Political, of the First Planting, Progressive Improvements, and Present State of the British Settlements in North-America ... Vol. I. Boston, New England: R. Baldwin. p. 341.

• Military history of Nova Scotia
• Battles of King George's War
• Conflicts in 1745